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CARACAS, March 10 (Reuters) - Furious Venezuelans lined up to buy water and fuel on Sunday as the country endured a fourth day of a nationwide blackout that has left already-scarce food rotting in shops, homes suffering for lack of water and cell phones without reception.

Authorities have managed to provide only patchy access to power since the outage began on Thursday in what President Nicolas Maduro called an act of U.S.-backed sabotage, but critics insist it is the result of incompetence and corruption.

The government on Sunday suspended school and business activities for the following day without providing any information on a likely time frame for resolving the situation, leaving many fretting that it could extend indefinitely.

The country's worst-ever power outage comes as Maduro faces a hyperinflationary economic collapse and an unprecedented political crisis. Opposition leader Juan Guaido in January invoked the constitution to assume the presidency after declaring Maduro's 2018 re-election a fraud.

Angry residents of the Caracas neighborhood of Chacao on Sunday set up barricades along a main avenue and on side streets to protest the continued blackout.

"The food we had in our refrigerators has spoiled, businesses are closed, there's no communication, not even by cell phone," Ana Cerrato, 49, a merchant, standing in front of a pile of razor wire and debris.

"We need help! We are in a humanitarian crisis!"

Lines at fuel stations extended for blocks as drivers queued for gasoline and busses waited to fill up with diesel. Families stood under the sun to buy potable water, which is unavailable for most residents whose homes do not have power.

State oil company PDVSA said on Sunday that fuel supplies were guaranteed. But only around 100 of the country's 1,800 service stations were operating due to the blackout, according to gas station industry sources.

Merchants unable to keep refrigerators working began giving away cheese, vegetables and meat to clients.

Bernie too. With that APC/Bernie duo, they will have it fixed in weeks.

I wonder what can possibly be wrong in Venezuela - it has socialism, nationalized most industries, no Fucking White Males present...the only issue I can see is Toxic Masculinity, but that apparently is OK when it emanates from minorities.

wonder what can possibly be wrong in Venezuela - it has socialism, nationalized most industries, no Fucking White Males present...the only issue I can see is Toxic Masculinity, but that apparently is OK when it emanates from minorities.

Some of those Racist Armed White Guys should grab their guns go down there and overthrow Maduro and keep the country for for themselves.

Easiest Quintillion you've ever made. All that Oil and too many Liberals. Bad combination. It makes them retarted. To Retarted to think straight. You would be doing them a favor actually relieving them off all of that conflicting stress. Just be sure to jail all of the commies for life without parole and no trial.

Shoot the ones that complain on the spot. I'm sick of not being the White Guys the Liberals says we are.

I am totally indifferent to Venezuela's government and I have to say that because always the stupid false dichotomy of "if you don't support X you must support Y" accusation is made. Election fraud hasn't been shown and even if it was, who cares? The US never improves nation with intervention - just look at Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, or Syria - and if you think they've improved it, talk to somebody from there that lives there now.

Supposedly Maduro is a bloodthirsty killer, who has been killed that is part of the opposition? Juan Guaidó is a minor political figure who was educated in the United States - he couldn't possibly be CIA, just like Mikheil Saakashvili couldn't be. Right... ?

Out of curiosity since i've not been on this blog for like 10 years, do you believe the White Helmets of Syria were really an aid group, or that Assad was using chemical weapons against his own people? Why would Assad use chemical weapons, a weapon that guarantees that the United States will bomb him? He's had a military and an airforce, why specifically carry out a "war crime"?

Commenters here have gone a bit downhill in quality, but whatever.

Also I had to laugh at this:

"This is all a CIA Plot by Capitalist Running Dogs!!!"

You of all people ought to know we're not really in a capitalist system - if we were the banks would have gone bankrupt in 2007, instead of taxpayers to bail them out, also housing prices would have plummeted. This isn't really a socialist system either. Somebody once called it the 3rd way, but you ought to know it by it's true name.

Of course, collapsing ancient power system (analog mostly, VERY susceptible to hacks) can have absolutely nothing to do with under-funding, lack of repair/maintenance, not cleaning out vegetation from under power lines, and loss of qualified engineers because they are underpaid and because the new bosses are military idiots.

All problems in visible Universe definitely arise from CIA, NSA, FBI, and other Fucking White Males. USA micromanages the whole world and screws over everyone who dares to challenge them.

Of course, collapsing ancient power system (analog at that for most) can have absolutely nothing to do with under-funding, lack of repair/maintenance, not cleaning out vegetation from under power lines

Please stop using false dichotomies. You can't possibly think this must be an either/or situation.

BTW - most of the United States power grid is state owned. One that notable isn't is PG&E, the one that keeps burning down Commiefornia because they won't maintain their power delivery system.

Could it be that Venezuela is having genuine power delivery problems that are purely due to lack of maintenance? Sure - but over the entire country, all at once, right after a fake politician declared himself prezdident, that the United States immediately recognized as legitimate, who didn't run in the election, and is only a minor figure in Venezuelan politics? Sure - it's still possible.

But stop jumping to conclusions. You know the United States will engage in shenanigans. Find that weapons of mass destruction program in Iraq yet? Hey, stop that "humanitarian crisis" that was about to happen in Libya by bombing the nation yet? It's now in civil war, and has slavery markets now. Hey, what is even the mission in Afghanistan now? Wasn't that to "git bin Laden" - well, what are we doing there now? No excuse needed after 18 years. Hey, still believe Assad is gassing his own people - what's his motivation to do it? Odd he's stopped now that the United States gave up there.

Why is the United States so eager to change the regime in Venezuela anyhow? You really think a government that has left Flint Michigan with poisoned water cares about human beings? But it's just beyond the imagination that the United States might be engaging in sabotage to you. Just a ludicrous idea.

I don't think people are often truly stupid, but I'm often amazed at how gullible they are.

The United States doesn't care what happens in Venezuela. There won't be migrant hordes there if the system collapses, it will be civil war. Even if migrant hordes of 25 million Venezuelans showed up, do you think our ruling class would care? Since when? They'll just increase domestic taxes on the "middle" class (i.e. the poor) to pay for them.

The problem is, Venezuela WON'T collapse because both China and Russia have vested interests there because of their investments. They'll prop it up forever or at least until they are satisfied with their return on their investment.

And that's the problem, they'll be receiving Venezuela's oil, they will be buying and selling it in the Renminbi and the Ruble, this will help stabilize both currencies, and destabilize the dollar - i mean further destabilize it. Did you know that the US is threatening to sanction GERMANY if they do business with Huawei now? All ANYTHING has to do is with power, control, and money - in that order.

This is about money. Doesn't matter what party is in power. The US ruling class doesn't care, what they care about, is maintaining and expanding their power. Their brutal stupidity over the last 17 years of blowing up country after country, making enemies of Russia (needlessly), making enemies of the entire Middle East (except the Sa'ud family), F'ing up Europe with all the refugees they created, and decimating their OWN MANUFACTURING SECTOR has left them in a difficult spot of their own making. They've painted themselves in a corner. Gee whiz, who didn't see this coming when the United States adopted the foreign policy of Nazi Germany? Golly, this was hard to predict.

The United States will alienate themselves from the entire world while gullible Americans shot rah! rah! the entire time. Attacking and then turning Venezuela into a vassal state will advantage our rulers and controls - but it won't advantage you or me. We're better off without them in control, just as Venezuela is better off without them in control, the difference is, they know it. What they've done to Syria, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan and are planning to do to Venezuela, eventually they'll do to us.

Could it be that Venezuela is having genuine power delivery problems that are purely due to lack of maintenance? Sure - but over the entire country, all at once, right after a fake politician declared himself prezdident, that the United States immediately recognized as legitimate, who didn't run in the election, and is only a minor figure in Venezuelan politics? Sure - it's still possible.

Yes, that is very possible. If a critical location or two is floundering and unable to operate near maximum efficiency, sure.

Remember half the USA lost power because of one sub-station in Upstate NY or PA, I forget, just a few years ago. And people screamed terrorism but it was just a succession of failures and overload from one location.

Think about all the copper wire and equipment that has been "salvaged" by Utility Employees - much less organized crime/political bosses - over the past year due to hyper inflation and the collapse in the standard of living.

Remember half the USA lost power because of one sub-station in Upstate NY or PA, I forget, just a few years ago. And people screamed terrorism but it was just a succession of failures and overload from one location.

I don't recall it being that large or an area, but I recall it.

I really don't know if what is going on in Venezuela is really just a natural collapse of the system or not, but let's say it's not - that doesn't mean the people who are suspected of being responsible actually are.

Consider this possibility - China did this, allowed people to think the United States was responsible because the US doesn't have very good credibility after Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, etc anyhow - and they did this in order to create a pretext to "help" in order to secure their position of being in control of Venezuela. Russia could have done this. Russia and China could have done this jointly.

You never really know - but I can say I think, that it's a bad thing to throw away your reputation as being the most moral nation in the world, which the US did, at least a decade ago.

The propaganda from the United States in the last decade has been embarrassingly laughable for 15+ years. "Oh Assad is using the one weapon we specifically forbid him to use, and not only this he's using it against women and children - shucks - I guess we have to invade... Oh Qaddafi is taking Viagra to rape young teenage girls, gee whiz, I guess we have to bomb his country... Hussein has a weapons of mass destruction program, and we even know it's exactly in Tikrit and we cannot wait for the final proof to come in the form of a mushroom cloud, golly I guess we have to invade... were are the WMD's um... Guess they were smuggled to Syria.."

Our ambassadors lie, our politicians lie, our media lies - and these aren't even convincing lies. They don't even pass the sniff test - and what credibility is left?

Yeah, what is happening in Venezuela MIGHT be exactly what the US "media", "politicians" and "ambassadors" say is happening - it might be, but they now have ZERO credibility.

So is it the US or failed Socialist governance responsible for destroying Venezuela?

Venezuela has it's problems, but Maduro was elected under international observation, they have a voting system that is based on tracking fingerprints, and it's verifiable. He was elected, and even though you might consider the Venezuelans in error to elect him, they elected him.

The United States has taken as foreign policy for the last 17 year to interfere in all manner of ways with foreign nations, and using blatant (and very obvious propaganda) to do it. Juan Guaidó is the president of the national assembly, and didn't even run as president. The official stance of the United States is that Guaidó wasn't allowed to run, yet his party won the national assembly somehow. This doesn't strike you as inconsistent? If Maduro is such a murderous thug, how did Guaidó end up in his position, instead of dead?

The United States has also staged false flags quite a bit. Bana al-Abed from Aleppo for one. Assad gassing his own people for another. These are obviously untrue but you still consider the US government credible for some reason. You should have dismissed them after "we cannot wait for the final proof to come in the form of a mushroom cloud" - most everybody else has.

So given that the United States lies, sabotages other nations they have targeted for regime change and has already declared somebody who neither ran for president nor won the presidency of Venezuela as "president", I can't trust any claim they make at this point. There could be a wolf outside right now, and if they were screaming wolf, I'd have to go outside, and poke it with a stick to know with any confidence.

Having said that, given that I know socialism will always grow to collapse, I cannot say it hasn't happened in Venezuela either.

But I'm not so stupid as to draw a conclusion and then start demanding somebody come to an either or conclusion. it's quite probable that since Venezuela has had plenty of power outages before, that the United States is now helping it along now in order to foster unrest, or this truly has nothing do with the United States. I can tell you that the VENEZUELANS in general believe this to be sabotage by the United States and you ought to be trying to convince them you know more about what is going on in their own country, than you should be trying to convince me.

I'm only pointing out there is incomplete information, the US media, government, intelligence agencies, and diplomatic arms have demonstrated at length they have 0 credibility at this point and it's certainly not outside the realm of possibility the United States would target a population to try to get their wanted regime change, after all that's what "Shock and Awe" was all about. I'm informing you, the United States flushed it's credibility down the toilet years ago, and even if everything that is happening in Venezuela is SOLELY the result of the government there, very few people in Venezuela believe it at this point, and that's not true of just them, but the rest of the world.

So although they might cry wolf at the top of their lungs you're one of the few that still listens. I would have to have evidence that what is going on in Venezuela is indeed due to lack of repair and mismanagement. Certainly won't take the word of the US "government" about it. They are compulsive liars now.